Synagro hit with possible $765K air-pollution fine as High Desert waste fire hits 1 month
The sewage-composting company whose 80-acre waste pit has been on fire for more than a month near Hinkley may face a $765,000 civil penalty from the Mojave Desert’s air regulator as the agency cites the ongoing blaze as a repeat offense.
Synagro Technologies Inc., a Maryland firm acquired in late 2020 by an investing arm of Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc., received an official notice of violation from the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District dated June 1, a few days after a fire started at its Nursery Products Hawes Composting Facility in late May, according to documents the Daily Press obtained via a public records request.
The facility had already received multiple notices of violations from the air regulator in 2022: One, a nuisance citation for a separate waste-pit fire fueling embers, smoke, and visible emissions in January; two, a permit violation for operating diesel-fueled machinery it hadn’t gotten approval to use, which an inspector witnessed in February.
These follow other violations from the air quality management district dating back to 2019.
Previous coverage: San Bernardino, state regulators investigating off-site dumps from High Desert waste pit fire site
Sarah Strout, the compliance supervisor for the local air regulator, sent the newest notice of violation to Synagro’s site manager in the High Desert, Venny Vasquez.
The June 1 notice alleges that with its current fire, Synagro has violated a settlement agreement it struck to avoid full enforcement after the violations earlier this year.
The latest violation results from the waste-pit blaze "discharging quantities of air contaminants which cause a nuisance to a considerable number of persons or to the public from smoldering compost piles beginning on May 28, violating the settlement agreement dated Feb. 15," Strout wrote to Vasquez.
On windy days since May, the Synagro fire has fueled complaints of sudden ailments and foul air among High Desert residents for dozens of miles downwind of the facility. The harshest reports since the fire began have come from residents of unincorporated Hinkley: a small but storied town best known for the contamination of its water that cost Pacific Gas and Electric a $333 million settlement and won Julia Roberts an Oscar for her role in “Erin Brockovich.”
The fire was first reported on May 31 by the Daily Press, at least three days after it began, with no public acknowledgment of the blaze having been made by any government agency or private entity to that point.
Strout wrote in the June 1 notice that anyone who violates the California Health and Safety Code Part 4, which relates to non-vehicular air pollution control, or any associated local district rules may be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to civic or criminal penalties.
However, the notice said Synagro could resolve the matter without further litigation. It laid out a few ground rules for the corporation to make that happen.
One requirement: "Extinguish fire with no signs of smoldering." Another was for Synagro to fill out and return a form detailing actions it's taking to correct the latest violation.
The third requirement laid out in the notice is for the composting corporation to either pay a $765,000 civil penalty or "arrange for (a) mutual settlement meeting" with the air regulator to work out a deal that could cost Synagro less in penalty payments.
The notice gave Synagro a deadline of June 15 to respond. It's unclear how the proceedings have gone in the time since.
Karen Nowak, the local air regulator's counsel, said Thursday the ongoing waste-pit fire remains under investigation, meaning although the June 1 notice can be provided as a public record, additional documents related to the violation are currently exempt from disclosure.
Martial Haprov, a spokesperson for the air regulator, said this means the Mojave Desert AQMD can’t currently disclose if any fine amount has been paid if any settlement is under negotiation, or if similar details are now deemed part of an ongoing investigation.
Layne Baroldi, Synagro's vice president of technical services and government affairs, says the company has not paid the civic penalty because it is making site improvements meant to mitigate the risk of future fires.
"The air district is requiring us to perform some site and operational improvements over an extended period of time at the facility, and we're implementing those as we speak to prevent this issue from reoccurring," Baroldi said.
Improvements could include changing the compost pile sizes, Baroldi said.
The company must make those improvements before any compromises with the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District's notice of violation becomes final, Baroldi said.
The changes to the facility are intended to prevent this issue from reoccurring, but a record of air quality management district violations earlier this year shows that this month-long fire began after Synagro previously agreed to submit fire prevention and smoldering management plan and have site employees undergo fire prevention training by March.
Potential fine compounded due to earlier nuisance violation, fire
Of the possible $765,000 fine, the nuisance allegation tied to the current waste-pit fire accounts for $200,000.
The other $565,000 is due to a breach of a separate settlement Synagro agreed to earlier this year, the Mojave Desert AQMD alleges. The air regulator detailed the terms of this settlement in a Feb. 16 notice obtained by the Daily Press, with a list of rules for the waste composter to make up for problems in the first two months of the year:
Pay $5,500 of fines
Submit applications to obtain permits “for additional equipment witnessed on-site during the February 10, 2022 site inspection.”
Provide proof of “Fire Prevention and Smoldering Material Management Measures training signed by all operators.”
Comply with a variety of ground rules, “including but not limited to” notifying the air regulator “immediately when smoke from the facility is leaving the property line,” for the next 12 months
That settlement was struck on Feb. 15, records show. Synagro had received a Jan. 6 notice of a nuisance violation and a visible emissions violation after air district staff witnessed "opacity greater than 20% being discharged into the atmosphere for more than three minutes on January 5, 2022, causing nuisance."
Then, on Feb. 11, the district levied another notice of violation against Vasquez and Synagro, this time for operating equipment — a trommel and conveyor — without a valid permit.
After the Feb. 15 settlement agreement, however, Synagro instead paid $5,000 for the emissions and nuisance violations and $500 for operating the equipment without a permit.
The remainder of the civil penalties, $35,000 for the emissions and nuisance violations and $1,500 for the equipment violation, were suspended after Synagro submitted applications for additional equipment, and presented a copy of its fire mitigation standard operating procedures, and signed fire prevention training documentation by March.
The district said the remaining $36,500 of fines would be revoked if Synagro complies for a year-long period — until Feb. 15, 2023 — with a variety of ground rules, “including but not limited to” notifying the air regulator “immediately when smoke from the facility is leaving the property line.”
Baroldi told the Daily Press that no settlement or penalty payment had been finalized regarding the current fire and alleged violation of the Feb. 15 settlement.
“I think the air board is doing a good job working with us to try to fix it so we can keep this site operating to help recycle, you know, the organic waste that the state mandates,” Baroldi said. “It is definitely site improvements, operational improvements that we are going to work on over an extended period of time."
History of violations goes back more than a year
Regulators at various levels have been documenting problems at the Synagro facility in recent years. Inspectors from the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health issued 39 violations at the site, most of them coming on routine monthly visits, between November 2020 and April this year, the Daily Press previously reported in an analysis of CalRecycle disclosures.
Those problems include “unacceptable” forms of waste being processed and misreported and excessive pathogen and contamination levels in ready-to-go loads, including more than five times the legal limit of film-plastic contamination.
In addition, the air quality management district had issued multiple notices of violations to Vasquez about the Synagro site since 2019, including for:
Delinquent permits in 2019
A California Clean Air Act and air district violation for failure to submit a requested 2019 emission year Comprehensive Emissions Inventory Report (CEIR)
An open outdoor fire causing a nuisance in 2021
Charlie McGee covers California’s High Desert for the Daily Press, focusing on the city of Barstow and its surrounding communities. He is also a Report for America corps member with The GroundTruth Project, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to supporting the next generation of journalists in the U.S. and worldwide. McGee may be reached at 760-955-5341 or cmcgee@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @bycharliemcgee.
Jonathan Horwitz is a staff writer for The Desert Sun. Reach him at jonathan.horwitz@desertsun.com or @Writes_Jonathan.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Records: Synagro may face $765K fine for High Desert waste-pit fire
